During the Summer of 1985, I became entranced by a number of shows that were being shown on CBN – the Christian Broadcasting Network. One of them was The George Burns-Gracie Allen Show, a very unique situation comedy in which Burns would often step out of character and address the audience. I enjoyed them so much that I began to record them nightly. He co-starred in this program with his real-life wife Gracie Allen, who protrayed one of the dizziest women ever to grace the screen. Even before this TV series from the 1950’s, Burns and Allen had had an illustrious career in radio and early film.
Of course, Burns had made a resurgence in the 1970’s and began appearing in movies once again following an extremely long hiatus. Going in Style and the three Oh God! films were two of his ‘newer’ movies that I had actually seen at the theater. Appearances on a number of modern variety shows (including The Muppet Show) had made him well-known to even the younger generation. Folks that fall into that category might be more apt to recognize him in the photo at right.
It is for all of these reasons that I chose to send George Burns a request for an autograph on June 17, 1985. It took only until July 5 for this living legend to send me the personalized signed photo as seen below.
More autographs from 1985 to come…
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